Saturday, December 27, 2008

Soldano 44

My bandmate in Roadhouse Joe, guitarist Scott Mishoe, bought a very cool little amp from Soldano sold only through Blues City Music near Memphis. The Soldano 44 is a 50-watt 1x12 amp, driven by two Sovtek 5881 power tubes and five (!) 12AX7 preamp tubes. Needless to say, this is one high-gain puppy.

He opted for the matching extension cab, so this rig is a neat little stack. The tone is Marshall-ish to my ear, and very musical and colorful. The dynamics are exceptional.

I was helping Scott dial the amp in when I recorded these short clips:

Soldano 44 Rock. Scott is feeling his inner head-banger.

Soldano 44 Blues. Scott noodles around with some blues licks, trying various guitar settings. Nice tone; no effects.

Soldano 44 Harp. I plugged in without changing any settings, and the result was nasty. I do not mean that in a good way. Great guitar amps don’t always make good harp amps.

4 comments:

Joe's Blues Blog said...

I don't know. I didn't think it sounded bad at all. Based on the sound sample you provided, if you could turn it down a bit or isolate it so you don't have feedback, I'll bet you could get a cool Big Walter tone ala "An Offer You Can't Refuse" out of it.

Rick Davis said...

Joe, cool pic! The Soldano is a great guitar amp in the Mesa or Marshall vein. It is very high gain. Have you ever plugged your bullet mike into a Marshall stack? Yikes!

Maybe you or I could tame it and get it to sound reasonable for harp, but it makes me tired just thinking about it.

Anonymous said...

Back when I first started playing harp I got the bright idea to buy a Marshall for amplification. It actually didn't sound too bad with green bullet except that it would feedback like a banshee at any volume louder than a gerbil watching an aquarium. It also tuned in a number of radio stations quite well. Oh well, live and learn.

Rick Davis said...

Hah! LOL. I tried a Marshall stack in about 1981 and my ears are still ringin'. High-gain guitar amps sound like ass with harp.